Mary Marquis
Mary Elizabeth Marquis MBE is a Scottish television news presenter, now retired. She was a leading interviewer and presenter on BBC Scotland from the mid-1960s, and became the face of the network's evening news programme Reporting Scotland until 1988, including the whole of the 1970s Nationwide era when input from BBC broadcasters based at the corporation's other studios around the UK contributed to a national programme. Early life Marquis was born in Glasgow. She trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.https://art.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/124917 Career She joined Border TV as an onscreen continuity announcer, in 1955. She was the first person seen on screen at Border, opening the station's transmission with the words "Good Evening and welcome to Border Television" when it went on air at 5:45 on 1 September 1961.Mary Scott Parker (1999), Border Television: A History. Carlisle: BookcaseBorder Television ITV50 part 1, via YouTube, at 1:20 (original sound only) Two years later she moved to BBC Scotland, travelling all over Scotland to interview people for A Quick Look Round (and later for her own series First Person Singular from 1970 – 75), before becoming one of the three leading presenters of Reporting Scotland at its inception in 1968, and subsequently the programme's main anchor for the next twenty years.Rebecca McQuillan, Here is the news ... 50 years on, Glasgow Herald, 18 September 2007Reported Scotland: 50 Years of BBC TV News, BBC Scotland, shown 30 September 2007. (programme trail, publicity); in particular 5:50 to 7:45 and 10:45 to 11:00 With the start of Nationwide in 1969, she became a frequent face on television across the whole of the UK. She has subsequently been involved with various arts, medical and academic organisations, and also did a series of live interviews at the Edinburgh Festival.Has she got news for Terry Wogan, Edinburgh Evening News, 2 September 2000Michael Kelly, Glasgow Diary, The Scotsman, 6 January 2001Office bearers, Tenovus Scotland, 2009 (national committee).iSite, Royal Blind School, December 2006; page 3, picture top right She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1983 New Year Honours list, and honoured with a special award for 'Special Contribution to Scottish Broadcasting' at the 2007 Scottish BAFTA awards.The Lloyds-TSB Bafta Scotland Awards 2007 , BAFTA Scotland, November 2007. (Images) RSAMD awards an annual Mary Marquis prize for student performance in television, commemorating her time there.Scholarships and Prizes, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama Personal life In 1962 she married Jack Anderson, a Glasgow (subsequently also Canada and London)-based architect and lecturer, and a son David was born two years later. Although expecting to be dismissed, she continued to appear on screen almost until the birth (including one interview conducted on a roof), and was back in the studio afterwards within six weeks.Reported Scotland at 6:15 to 7:00 References External links * Title sequences for Reporting Scotland, TV ark. Including a 1985 version, seguing to Mary Marquis at the news desk * Mary Marquis attempting to feed the penguins at Edinburgh Zoo (film clip), BBC News Scotland website * Reported Scotland: 50 Years of BBC TV News, 60-minute BBC Scotland film, shown 30 September 2007 *Scotsman mini-bio Category:Living people Category:BBC Scotland newsreaders and journalists Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from Glasgow Category:Scots-language activists Category:Scottish television presenters Category:1938 births Category:British women television journalists